Orbital Research Swarm Algorithms - Manual

Advanced Techniques for Multi-Agent
Coordination
Orbital Research, Inc.
4415 Euclid Ave., Suite 500
leveland, OH 44103-3733 C
Contact: Frederick J. Lisy, Ph.D.
Telephone (216) 649-0399
E-mail [email protected]
www.orbitalresearch.com
Copyright 2003
Rev F: RMK-12-09-2003
A swarm of UAV’s track a chemical weapon cloud
Swarm algorithms can be used to coordinate large numbers
of vehicles such as the XUV
Efficient material handling on board
aircraft carriers is enabled with
swarm algorithms.
Swarm Intelligence
Applications
Imagine an ant colony overrun with activity. Hundreds of
thousands of ants, each following only the simple rules encoded
in their DNA, will eventually build an elaborate structure that
rivals in complexity many of today's modern marvels. This is
just one of the many examples of swarm algorithms that can be
found in nature. Using nature as a guide, Orbital Research can
leverage millions of years of evolution to produce algorithms
that can coordinate large heterogeneous swarms of
autonomous agents.
Ants, as well as many other creatures, communicate through
stigmergy, which is a form of indirect communication through
modification of the local environment. For example, ants leave
chemical pheromone trails, which when encountered by
another ant will help dictate the next action taken.
Orbital Research has successfully applied its extensive
background in biologically-inspired swarm algorithm
development in many areas of research. Unmanned air vehicles
(UAVs) provide a safe and cost-effective way of performing
many of the tasks still performed today by soldiers, such as
reconnaissance and battle damage assessment (BDA). In order
to fully realize the capabilities
of UAVs, multiple UAVs need
to be deployed simultaneously
and they must have the ability
to
the presence of the
other UAVs. Orbital Research
has developed several UAV
coordination algorithms that
allow a single controller to
command large groups of
UAVs to perform such tasks as
formation flying, dynamic task
assignment, reconnaissance,
and chemical cloud tracking. In
addition many of these algorithms have been shown to be directly
applicable to similar systems such as unmanned underwater vehicles
(UUVs), unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs), and
autonomous.
Underway replenishment of a naval carrier is a time-consuming task
where the largest cost comes from the need to constantly train
new sailors. In order to reduce cost, a reduction in manpower is
needed, which in turn requires an increase in efficiency. Orbital
Research is currently developing swarm-based algorithms for the
realize
submunitions
O
rbital Research has leveraged the work of biologists and computer
scientists to develop biologically-inspired swarm algorithms for the control
of swarms of autonomous agents ranging from unmanned air vehicles (UAVs) to
data packets on a communications network. Using algorithms honed by
evolution, Orbital Research combines these algorithms with its background in
advanced controls to produce efficient algorithms for multi-agent coordination
that are robust to changing situations and can operate under highly restrictive
communications bandwidth requirements.